Journey to the Polls

November 6, 2016

In two days, we Americans journey to the polls to cast our votes in the national election.  For me, this is an exciting event, reinforcing my love of country and gratitude for the rights and responsibilities each election reinforces for me. I enjoy voting, and since our marriage nearly 29 years ago, Keith and I go to the polls together if at all possible.

My first experience voting in a presidential election was in 1980, Carter versus Reagan.  At eighteen, I knew everything!  I researched the candidates, listened to the "grown-ups" cuss and discuss the finer points of the election, and actually paid attention in government class.  I was a proud and prepared voter! My parents took me with them to vote, and Dad was as excited as I was about voting.  We arrived in New Albany, the polling location for our township, and entered the charming one-room school house that housed the elections.  Three women of retirement age, and dressed as if attending church, manned their stations with friendly, yet serious focus.  Pencil and ballot in hand I stepped into the booth and pulled the curtain.  My parents were on either side of me, and it was a serious, solemn and exhilarating experience.  I was casting my vote for the U.S. President!

Those emotions travel with me each time I cast my vote in an election.  On Tuesday these emotions will still be with me.  Am I happy with this year's brawl for the office of U. S. President? No.  I can honestly say I am disgusted with the tone and behavior of this election's campaigning.  If my children had acted the way this nation, as a whole, is behaving, consequences would have been swift and harsh.  If my junior high students said anything remotely like the top two candidates have said, and with the tone most often used, Saturday detentions would have occupied the last two months of my free-time. However, it not just the candidates I hold responsible.

I hold us, the American people, responsible.  We find the tasteless campaigning and mudslinging entertaining, especially if our candidate scores a great verbal punch.  We believe everything and anything on social media.  Worst of all, we do not do our own research!  We are lazy!  It is easier to soak in all the foul conjecture from our favorite news source, consider this garbage gospel, and then become offended if another intelligent person disagrees with our view! The First Amendment protects our freedom of speech, but when did we begin to interpret that as permission to be controlling, judgmental, and hateful to those who disagree with our views?

The person we elect on Tuesday will be our President.  That person will be working for us.  No, President Obama does not know who I am, and I am okay with that.  However, he serves this country, therefore, he serves us, the Americans.  He works for me, a citizen of the United States of America.  The next President will work for me.  I want to know the right person had been selected for the job.  Most people really want the right person for this very important job.

When deciding how to vote in an election, especially one as contentious as this election has become, I reflect on the issues that are my priorities, the issues I want the candidate to also see as priorities.  I care less about the political affiliation and party politics.  I want a candidate to understand that all life is important.  As a Catholic, pro-life and the protection of all life is my number one priority.  I want all of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights to be valued and protected.  I want a President who will lead all citizens, not just special interest groups and dissatisfied factions upset about racial and economic injustices.  While these injustices need to be addressed and corrected, it is not the President's personal responsibility to choose a side and pass judgement.  It is the President's job to lead all citizens into correcting our faults and building a better country. I want a President who will respect and support our military men and women, and who will honor all promises made to these brave Americans, whether in active duty or as veterans.  I want a President to do his, or her job as spelled out by the U.S. Constitution: see that the laws are enforced.  This requires a well-trained and well prepared law enforcement presence.  Without law enforcement, laws cannot be enforced. While these are my top priorities, they may not be the priorities of my neighbor.  Okay. So?

We all need to vote.  We should vote wisely and by our conscience.  We should research, learn, listen, discuss, not argue and get hateful, and above all, we should pray.  Yes, pray! We need to pray for our country, our leaders, our citizens.  It matters not to me what religion you claim, or do not claim.  Those of us who find comfort and guidance in religion need to pray for this Great Nation.

We are not a perfect country, but we are a great country.  One reason we are so great?  We, the people, vote.  We need to vote for our convictions, not the convictions of others.  Your vote is private and no one has a right to know how you cast your vote.  There is absolutely no risk involved in voting.

This Tuesday, all Americans should journey to the polls and elect our leaders. I will stand in line at the polls with my husband this week, visiting with neighbors and anticipating how valuable this responsibility of voting is for each of us.  I will check in, receive my ballot, say a prayer, and make my decisions.  I will vote!

"God Bless and Save the United States of America!" (Jon Beal)